Cupid Shuffle

Dear Rousseau,
If you could please stop falling apart, that would really make my rides more enjoyable.

I'll tell ya right now, this week's blog will not measure up to last's. But have no fear, I will proceed with this weekly blog.

Overall, the week felt very very long yet very very short at the same time. Before I knew it I was eatin' chicken and catching up on the week's TV shows, but every day seemed pack full of long conversations, long class periods, and awkward moments in the locker room at the gym. In 24 hours I was smacked twice on the hiney by two ladies in their 50's and 60's. And all the others witnessed it, so now they think it's ok...great, i'll have to start wearing padding or something because those ladies are small but they sure are strong.

The classes were good this week. My morning class is really growing. We are up to 8 now. I just had one of my students come back from studying English in the Philippines and he has improved immensely, so it's been fun talking to him since he's so confident and willing to converse.

I don't think I've told you enough about my company classes that were recently added. One of the classes has the best energy. They all work in the same department and they are all mostly around the same age, which is probably in the 30's. This week we were talking about how to respond when someone says, "What are you doing?" or "What are you up to?" or "What's going on?" So I wrote on the board what everyone was doing at the moment, and they all said something like ,"I'm thinking about lunch." or "I'm thinking about my house." or (my fav) "I'm thinking about my wife." I was hesitant to write it on the board because then I just feel like they read the answer, so I asked them something like this, "June what is Mr. Lee doing?" The first two went, I said, "Tony, what is Jim thinking about?" And Tony fell right into it when he read word for word on the board, "He's thinking about my wife." We all had a good laugh and then I was able to explain the importance of changing that small little word "my" to "his" :)

On Tuesday in my middle school class, we were talking about activities. This class is one of the most rowdy classes, but they are very fun to be around. So, the question was something like, "Do you dance well?" And before you could say, "kimchi" these kids pushed the chairs into a circle and say, "teacher, night club! You dance!" Oh what to pull out of my extensive dancing skills...electric slide? Macarena? YMCA? Cotton Eyed Joe? Dougie? And much to their surprise and mine, there I was in the "nightclub" doing the Cupid Shuffle.

Thursday also had an interesting moment. I was up at the board writing something (very important I'm sure), and I turn around to see this little girl with her cell phone in front of her face and then I hear "CLICK" the sound of taking a picture. She said, "Teacher I want friends to see face." Oh the joys of being so different in this country.

Like I said, the weekend came fairly quick and I was excited because one of my elementary students invited me to his basketball tournament. He told me it was behind City Hall and to be there at 10:30 a.m. So, I jumped on Rousseau and biked over to city hall in search of some sort of Gus Macker. He failed to tell me that it was inside a school and that the time had been changed from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. So, I spent a good amount of Saturday morning biking around and then shopping for groceries at Emart.

Saturday afternoon I was able to go on a mini excursion with the Pastor of my church and two other Haveners. We went to a beach area about 30 minutes from Gunsan. And although people say it's not as great as the East coast, the West coast has also got it going on. Here are some pics of our mini adventure.

The cliffs and caves were pretty awesome.




While the guys were getting something from the van. I spotted this little angel tied up to a truck. So, while I was staring at him and contemplating whether or not he would be a nice dog, a police man came up to me and told me that this is a Chow dog from China and that it's a "lion dog." which made me think, "ok, maybe I'll just observe."

But then the owner popped around the corner and told me to take a picture with it. So he demonstrated how I should basically pin the dog down for the picture and then before I knew it, he shoved the dog under me and expected me to man handle this slightly wild "lion dog." And this is what came of it:


Who knew the Yellow Sea could be so pretty.


We even found this stone mermaid that Alex piggy backed for a little bit.

And this is my favorite picture of the day. If you see a "drawing man" throw the life ring to rescue him...however, if you see a drowning man, don't worry about it ;)

This was shorter than most, and the rate this week has been going, the next blog may be even shorter. Depending on what hemisphere you are reading this in, have a wonderful night/afternoon/morning!